Apple and Facebook have announced plans to pay for their female employees to freeze their eggs. This, say the tech giants, will boost the performance of women in their employ. The companies seem to be betting that women will devote themselves body-and-soul to the job in the present, knowing that their bosses have helped provide other options for their future.

Hospitals and drug clinics are bracing themselves for more patients presenting with psychosis and cardiovascular problems after a significant increase in use of the drug "ice". The number of injecting drug users who used ice in the last six months has increased from 55 per cent to 61 per cent in the last year, according to the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre's annual survey released on Monday.

Foreign nationals on 457 visas are working in schools and early childhood centres despite a growing glut of unemployed Australian teaching graduates. A leaked audit of the 457 scheme by the Fair Work Ombudsman, obtained by Fairfax Media, suggests that up to 3600 people are working as teachers, mainly in early childhood care.

New research presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress in Berlin sheds light on what happens in the brains of gamblers. Pathological gambling is a difficult condition to classify.

The Australian leader of the Hillsong megachurch has been forced to clarify his position on gays after being attacked by Christians for supporting homosexuality. Brian Houston was quoted widely in gay and mainstream media reports saying that gays and lesbians should be welcomed in the church.

Here's some affirming news for anyone who has ever had to stop their eyes from rolling at an ostentatious wedding: a study undertaken last month of over 3,300 heterosexual people in the US has found that marriage duration is inversely associated with spending on the engagement ring and wedding ceremony.

Three out of five Australians are in favour of Tony Abbott confronting Russian President Vladimir Putin over the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 when he visits Australia next month. But despite endorsing the Prime Minister’s tough talk, the latest Newspoll, taken exclusively for The Australian, shows overall support for the ­Coalition has dropped to a three-month low. Labor continues to flatline, the Greens have received a bounce in primary vote, and Bill Shorten has marked his first year as Labor leader with his approval rating dropping to a three-month low and disapproval with him at its highest level.

The Abbott government has spent more than a billion dollars this financial year to house about 2100 asylum seekers in offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, Senate estimates has heard.

With all the focus on the rise of the Islamic State (IS) and related turmoil in the region, one important and tragic story has been left out of the popular narrative: the plight of the Middle East's ancient Christian communities. These once vibrant communities, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, face additional duress as winter approaches.

Just months before she died, 17 year old Abbey wrote this poem for her father. “I was only a girl hiding under my sheets,” 17-year-old Abbey wrote in a poem addressed to her father. “I’m broken now, torn and ripped in pieces… I fight to repaid the damage/ your breath remains on my chest.” Two months after she wrote those chilling lines, Abbey was dead.